India's Congress Party wins key elections in two states

New Delhi - India's Congress Party retained power in the states of Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh and looked set to form a government in Haryana Thursday in the first major electoral test after the general election in April and May. The Congress Party, the leading partner in the federal ruling alliance, swept the elections in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. The election, which saw a voter turnout of 72 per cent, was held days after China objected to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the state for campaigning, saying it was a disputed region. China claims most of Arunachal as its territory while India says it is an integral part of the country. In politically important Maharashtra, the opposition alliance of the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena lost for a third time in a row with a breakaway faction of the latter eating into their votes. In Haryana, the Congress Party fell six seats short of simple majority with a regional opposition party, the Indian National Lok Dal, coming a close second. Analysts said the party would have to scramble to form a government with help of independent winning candidates in a state where party pundits had predicted a clean victory. The Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance won a strong mandate in the general election for the national Parliament and was the incumbent party in all three states. 'The Congress Party thanks the voters for their confidence in us,' party spokesman Janardhan Dwivedi said as celebrations erupted outside the party headquarters and party president Sonia Gandhi's house in Delhi. The main opposition BJP accepted defeat. 'We will accept with humility the results in all three states, but the poll results were not up to our expectations,' BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a press briefing. The Congress Party's clear win in Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh states was expected to strengthen Singh's hand in initiating economic reforms and rural development programmes.